Atlanta Braves: Freeman and Swanson propel Braves to late-inning win

The Atlanta Braves earned a much-needed win to extend their lead in the National League East.

After a historic night at Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves looked to continue their winning ways in the nation’s capital on Thursday evening.

Atlanta scored 29 runs on Wednesday night and I’m sure many fans hoped they saved some for their series against the Washington Nationals.

Things didn’t look good early on as Robbie Erlin allowed the Nationals to score 5 runs in just 1/2 innings of work. The Nationals weren’t fooled by anything that Erlin was throwing their way.

I think we may have witnessed Erlin’s final start in an Atlanta uniform.

Huascar Ynoa came in to relieve Erlin and promptly threw 3 solid innings of work. Ynoa allowed just 1 run on 2 hits with 2 strikeouts. He did struggle a little bit as he walked 4 batters in the game (2 of those were intentional) but overall he did a nice job holding the Nationals to just one more run.

This allowed a potent Braves offense to get to work and attempt a comeback.

Luckily for Atlanta Braves fans, this offense found a way to get it done via the home run.

Freddie Freeman put the Braves on the board in the 4th inning with a 2-run homer to right-center field.

After Tyler Flowers was hit by a pitch (which later may have caused him to leave the game) and he was promptly driven in by a first-pitch opposite-field 2-run home run off the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr.

That brought Atlanta closer as they trailed the Nats by a score of 5-4.

Unfortunately, the Nats would later add on another run and it felt like the Braves may suffer another disappointing loss.

Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson had other plans, however.

Freeman launched another 2-run homer to tie up the game and Swanson launched a go-ahead solo shot in the top of the 8th to give the Braves the lead and ultimately, a victory.

The door was closed shut by Chris Martin, Shane Greene, and Mark Melancon who all pitched incredibly well out of the bullpen.

This team is well aware that they have to step up and score runs every night with the state that our starting rotation is currently in.

While we cannot expect the offense to score 5+ runs every single night, we have to hope that they can continue to do so until the starting rotation finds its footing.

The top 3 in the lineup are hitting out of their minds for Atlanta right now. Especially Freddie Freeman, who has 5 home runs and 20 RBI in his last 7 games.

He is slashing .333/.450/.635 with 52 hits including 10 HR, 15 doubles, and an OPS of 1.084. Those numbers are absolutely putting him in MVP territory. Freeman also now leads the league in RBI with 42 of them.

We are lucky to have Freddie on our side and I’m so glad to see him running on all cylinders.

This was a great way to start the road trip. Atlanta has 3 more games in this series with Washington and that’s the last we will see of the Nats in the regular season.

The Braves then head to Baltimore to face the Orioles and New York for their final series against the Mets before finishing out the season at home against Miami and Boston.

This has been a strange season and it’s hard to imagine it’s almost over. Let’s hope this team can continue to prosper despite many challenges being thrown their way.

It’s surely a season that I’ll not soon forget.